Hi everyone it's Lauren and in this video I'm going to show you all of the books
that I've recently acquired since my previous book haul. My previous book haul
was pretty big and I really didn't think I'd gathered that many books since
that time and it appears I actually have! So I think I have to go on a book
buying ban now, it's getting quite ridiculous, I'm running out of space in
my house! But I am really, I know I say this all the time, but I really am super
excited for a lot of these books that I've got, so I'll just dive straight into
it and show you what I've got. The first little pile that I have here were sent
to me by Penguin as part of their Pride Month book club. So it's not Pride
Month anymore unfortunately so I'm a little bit late to the party here but
I'm really excited for these books, I'll show you which ones they sent me
So these are all part of the book club that Penguin Platform were promoting last
month, the first one is Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. This has been on my
list for such a long time, I've not read any James Baldwin and I feel like
everybody seems to love Giovanni's Room specifically so I'm really happy
to finally get my hands on this. The second one I have is Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae brown and it's about a young woman growing up in America and
navigating the various relationships that she has, navigating adolescence I
imagine. I also have some nonfiction so this one is Believe by Nicola Adams
which is her autobiography. I love Nicola Adams; she was the first woman to win
gold at boxing in the Olympics and she won gold again in Rio I believe last
time and she just seems so nice and so down to earth and I think it's amazing
what she's achieved. This is an autobiography, I don't know how well it's
going to be written. I don't actually know very much about her life. I will report
back and that you know how good this book is, but as a person absolutely love
her. The other non-fiction book that they have as part of the book club is
Good As You by Paul Flynn, now this is look at LGBT history focusing specifically I
think on gay men in Britain in the last 30 years. There's a lot of stuff on
telly here at the moment about Britain's history and its relationship
with LGBT issues because this year is actually 50 years since homosexuality
was decriminalized in the UK which is quite amazing to think about because 50
years feels like a long time, but then the same time it feels like nothing at
all, that's so recent! I mean it's weird to think that people are alive now who
were alive when being gay was a crime. I can't fathom that, that seems so recent and
yet looking at how far society's come in that time is incredible. So this is
looking back at the last 30 years and I'm really interested to learn a
little bit more about this and just get some history because it isn't the
sort of thing you learn about school and so it says here 'Paul Flynn charts this
astonishing pop cultural and societal u-turn by the milestones that affected
change, from Manchester's self-selection is Britain's gay capital to the
real-time romance of Elton John and David Furnish, this is a story of
Britain's brothers, cousins and sons. Sometimes it's the story of their
fathers and husbands. It is one of public outrage and personal loss, highs and
desperate lows and a final collective victory as gay men were to be finally
recognized good as you.' And finally we have a graphic novel which I must say I
was most excited to receive as part of this bundle which is One Hundred Nights of
Hero by Isabel Greenberg. This is, I don't think it's a sequel but it's set in the
same world as in The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, which I read a few months
ago and really, really enjoyed, but I have heard from people who have read this
that this is even better. This is based on Arabian Nights where a woman is
telling stories to someone in order to stall time to avoid her girlfriend
from having to be married off, I believe. I don't read graphic novels that often
but when I do I really appreciate them as a change up in my reading flow, I
suppose.Now to get onto the books that I have bought myself or been lent so I
will start with this one which is Excession by Iain M Banks. Now this was
lent to me by my friend Katie who has been lending me and old school science
fiction books after I read Auxiliary Justice last year. So I read I Robot
last month and I really enjoyed it and then she's also lent me this one
which i think is based on, well is similar to Auxiliary Justice in that it
has ships who have AI and the story is about those I believe? I think that's the
reason she lent me this one is because it was similar to that book and I'm
really liking this new foray into a genre that I don't normally read. It's
nice to have a bit of a guide as well. to have someone to tell you what to read
The next two books I got my hands on when we went up to visit Simon at
Savidge Reads a few weeks ago. The first one I picked up in a shop was The
Trouble With Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon and this
comes highly recommended by Simon and Mercedes. It's about a sleepy English
town I think during the summer of 1976 when there was a huge heat wave in the
UK and I believe someone goes missing and there's lots of rumors and
suspicions around the town, but it just sounds like a really nice and really
I was going to say a 'cosy' read I think it's gonna be more of a summer read, this one, and the
other book that was lent to me by Simon is My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du
Maurier. Now, we were having a little bit of a discussion over on Simon's channel
which I will link up here and in the description box below, because I'm not a
huge fan of Daphne du Maurier. I liked Rebecca, really didn't like Jamaica Inn,
and Simon really, really loves her so he did suggest giving her another shot with
My Cousin Rachel and this was his spare copy, which he's lent me which is very, very
kind so I will give it another go and I will report back, mate and I'll let you
know what I think! The next book's a bit of a random one but I was in Waterstones in
Hampstead with Jen and Jean last weekend I think and I just was walking
around the history section and then picked this up and then I bought it so I have
a book on Celts now! I really like the Celts, well I think I do, I have lots of
books about the Celts I have lots of Celtic myths and legends books, I've
always been interested in that area of history in that kind of western part of
the world. But I hardly ever actually read these books, so I don't know why I
bought another one really, I don't know enough about the the writer, I don't know
if it's going to be interesting if it's going to be a very well-put-together
history of the Celts, but I really want to give it a go because I like
non-fiction and I like history books and I've been a little bit inspired to try
and get into it and I'm going to keep this book I think I next to my bed
or something so that I definitely pick it up next. I think it's very easy well
it is for me anyway to just continue on with fiction and never actually pick up
non-fiction or history books or just to feel like I have the urge to learn
something, even though I think in my head that I want to learn, it's actually
taking the time. Well...I'll let you know! So the other day I was waiting to
meet my friend Stephen and we were going to meet at Tottenham Court Road station I
go there a little bit early so I just said 'oh I'll meet you in Foyles!' and
then ten minutes later I'd spent £50
on four books. But they were all so interesting and all so important, so
I'm going to keep telling myself that that it was a very good thing that I
bought them! The first one I have here is The Descent of Man by Grayson Perry. I've
already read this book, so I'll leave a link to my review in the description box
below. This is a pondering I suppose on masculinity what is as part of society
and how we raise boys and it's quite interesting because there's a lot of
things in here which I have heard from other feminist writers or stuff that
I've observed within masculinity but it's really interesting to hear from a
male perspective and hear someone put stuff into words that you know you
witness on a day-to-day basis but you don't really understand. The next book is
also in those Penguin Politics editions and that is The Establishment And How
They Get Away With It by Owen Jones. I follow Owen Jones on Twitter and at the
moment it feels like politics in Britain is really bubbling up to the
surface, there's a lot going on here at the moment and this book comes highly
recommended from Jean, I think it's going to be very interesting to learn
about society, well I presume that's what I'm going to learn about in here,
society and the establishment and how everything works and is put together
I imagine this book is going to be very left-leaning so I'm going to go into it
with a bit of a pinch of salt but as I said it comes very very highly
recommended and I don't think I know anybody who's read this and not loved it
So, really exciting! So I have books on gender, I have books on society and now I have
a book on race, which is Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race by
Reni Eddo-Lodge, who I believe was a contributor to The Good Immigrant book
edited by Nikesh Shukla, which I really enjoyed and this is her first
novel. This book has been absolutely everywhere and a lot of people have so
much praise for it. On the back you've got quotes from Marlon James, Nikesh Shukla,
Paris Lees. I just think, I mean it's about race isn't it? I don't have
anything else to say about it because I don't know, but I just heard so many good
things and you can never have too many books about important subjects! Speaking
of, the last book that I bought in Foyles or the book that I've seen banded around
Booktube and I'm so excited to read is The Gender Games by Juno Dawson. Juno is
a transgender women and this is what it says on the tin basiccally -
'The problem with men and women from someone who has been both' and what's
quite interesting about this book from what I can gather from the blurb is that
this is about gender in general and about lots of different views on being
gay on feminism, anti feminism, so I don't think it is strictly just Juno's own
perspective I think she's widens the nest a little bit and I know Simon
really loved it and I know Lauren from Lauren and the Books really loved it so
yeah I just I'm really excited to learn a little bit more about gender and read
a bit more about that topic it just really interests me. And finally a little baby
pamphlet which I picked up yesterday in Camden Market when Jen and I went past
Iconica Books and it is England, Your England by George Orwell and the reason
I put this up part of the fact that it's a tiny pamphlet and it was two pounds is
that I saw this on Lucy on Portal in the Pages' channel and she really enjoyed
it and this is again just ponderings on being English I think and sort of
English society. So just a small book haul there and I tried to rocket through
them as quickly as I could so that this video wasn't like half an hour long
I am definitely going to have to
restrict how many books I buy or maybe just buy my books from my Kindle from
now on, which is a bit of a shame but it does seem a bit excessive at this point
doesn't it? And I would love to hear from any of you if you have read these books
already because I've heard really good
things about them but I would love to get more recommendations from you and I
will see you in my next video, bye!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét